ABSTRACT
People are scared today. Especially young people fear the future. Most of us are anxious about the future of our planet. The wars, terror attacks and humanitarian tragedies at the beginning of this millennium contribute to a collective state of anxiety, to “chronophobia”. In 2011 in peaceful Norway, fear was even more concretely experienced during and after the worst violent attack since 1945 where a young, white Norwegian killed 77 people, injured 40 and destroyed the Government Building in Oslo. According to the author, the acceleration of urgency and the need for energetic acting in a state of emergency, which is highly characteristic for apocalypticism, seems to have been a primary driving force here. In this climate we can also see new interest in apocalyptic-inspired films and books.
The chapter argues that contextual theology today should draw from Christian traditions and take part in contemporary discourses about fear of the future and the complex existential, ethical and political issues emerging from terror attacks and wars. It is necessary to participate in the discourses as Christians, not only as fellow citizens in a secular language. Christian theology should be a theology of hope and may be used to contradict the many flourishing anthropologies and eschatologies of hopelessness.
